The present invention concerns interconnecting equipment together and pertains particularly to using keyed interconnection sockets in order to distinguish between input connections and output connections.
In various applications, it is necessary to connect electronic equipment together. Generally cables with standard connections are used to provide the connections.
In many applications, a single equipment box may include both an input and an output. In such a system it is often important to make a clear distinction between inputs and outputs. For example, when connecting together stackable hubs of a network together, it is important that an input from one hub be connected to an output of another hub. If two hub inputs are connected together or two hub outputs are connected together, the network will fail to operate properly.
Typically, when it is necessary to make a clear distinction between an input on an equipment box and an output on an equipment box, the unit input connector and the unit output connector on the equipment box are of a different gender. That is, the unit input connector on the equipment box is a male and the unit output connector on the equipment box is a female, or alternately, the unit input connector on the equipment box is a female and the unit output connector on the equipment box is a male. A cable used to connect such equipment boxes together will likewise have a male connector at one end of the cable and a female connector at the other end of the cable.
Typically, the male connectors will include pins and the female connectors will include sockets. These pin and socket interconnects can be prone to damage especially when cabling them up. If a customer attempts to plug the male connector of the cable into the male connector of the equipment box, damage can occur to the pins in the male connector of the cable and the male connector of the equipment box.